In a retail environment, it is important to be able to associate a customer with each transaction. Customer identification helps in analyzing customer purchase patterns, which improves the product selection and marketing of the retail organization.
One traditional method of customer identification is to simply ask the customer to identify him or herself at the time of the transaction. For example, a store employee might ask for the customer's phone number at the point of sale. The phone number is then entered into a computer system, and a customer database record that matches the phone number is presented to the sales associate. Optionally, the customer may be asked to verify that the information in the customer record is correct. If there is no match between the given phone number and any record in the customer database, or if the customer indicates that the database record contains inaccurate or outdated information, the customer is asked to provide detailed information for inputting directly into the customer database.
Three major problems exist with this type of customer identification. First, the customer may object to giving personal information at the time of a purchase transaction. Such questions often feel invasive, and can lead the customer to associate this negative feeling with shopping at the retail store. Second, the customer may provide inaccurate information, such as an outdated or incorrect phone number. Unless the customer is then asked to verify the information found in the customer database, bad data will be stored in the database leading to an inaccurate analysis at a later date. Finally, directly requesting a name or phone number from each customer slows down all transactions at the point of sale. This may lead to customers experiencing a longer wait to purchase their items, leading once again to negative associations with the store. Alternatively, additional staff will be required at check out to compensate for the additional time necessary for each transaction, increasing the retailers cost per sales transaction.
Another approach to identifying a customer is to institute a customer loyalty program. In these programs, the customer is asked to provide personal information, such as their name, address, and phone number. The information is entered into a customer database, and associated with a customer identification number. This number is placed on a loyalty card that is given to the customer. Rewards are then given to the customer for using the card during future payment transactions. Such rewards can include discount prices, or an accumulation of “points” that can be redeemed for products, discounts, or cash at a later date. When the customer loyalty card is presented during a sales transaction, the sales associate can quickly read the customer identification number from the loyalty card, thereby positively identifying the customer for that transaction. Unfortunately, many customers decline to use loyalty cards, meaning that this technique standing alone is not adequate to meet the customer identification needs of all retailers.
A third approach to customer identification utilizes the credit card number that is used by a customer to make a purchase. This technique records the credit card number and later submits the recorded numbers to a third party, who then returns information about the individual or individuals who are authorized to use each card number. This technique was highly effective for identifying customers for credit card transactions, although it was usually impossible to distinguish between two different individuals who are authorized to use the same credit card account. However, recent statutory changes in the United States have prevented any further use of this technique.
The above-described identification techniques can be considered different methods of “direct identification,” since the customer directly identifies themselves at the sales transaction (either verbally or by presenting a customer loyalty card with a customer number or a credit card with a credit card number). Because of the problems associated with these techniques, many retail chains are pursuing alternative methods of customer identification. Some of these methods do not involve any “direct” identification, but instead “indirectly” identify the customer by making an educated guess as to the customer's identify based upon the details of the transaction.
The assignee of the present invention has developed a technique described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/970,236, filed Oct. 2, 2001 and entitled Customer Identification System and Method, which is hereby incorporated by reference. This technique uses the name of a customer as taken from a payment mechanism (such as a credit card) to make an educated guess as to the consumer's identity. This name, sometimes called a “reverse-append” name, or “RAN,” may be shared with hundreds or thousands of other individuals. Hence, obtaining the customer's name is not a direct identification method. The technique in application Ser. No. 09/970,236 compares the name with individuals within a “trade area” associated with the store. When multiple individuals are found, a scoring system is used to select the best match, which is the individual most likely to be the customer in that particular transaction. While this approach is useful in identifying customers, more techniques are needed to identify customers, especially when customer related data is already available to the retailer for a particular transaction.